Spouting Off About Water…
Brenda Craig
Published in Thompson Life Magazine
June 2007
bacraig53@hotmail.com
There’s been a lot of ‘spouting off’ about the idea of ‘pay as you spray’ mandatory residential water-metering. The nasty truth is, the flat-rate system is a contributing factor to our dubious honour as the number one water hogs of the Nation.
According the city’s Utility Director, David Duckworth we suck up “20 times the national per capita average”. On hot days, when other Canadians use 800 liters a day, we gulp down 2500 liters per capita.
There’s something quite serene about our semi-arid climate with the sage-tufted hills, even if our 270 millimeter annual rainfall (just under 11 inches) does put us in league with Alice Springs in Australia’s outback, the lower edge of the Sahara region of Africa and some areas of Nevada (think Mojave desert).
Considering we’re about 3 inches shy of official desert status, the city’s flat rate for residential water consumers has been thought of as a necessity. Providing low-cost water was a way to keep us from turning into a ‘brown town’, in other words, everyone could afford to keep the lawn green.
Unfortunately un-metered householders can be real drips, and can be frequently seen dusting off the driveway with a hose instead of broom or letting sprinklers miss their targets hour after hour after hour.
But it’s midnight at the oasis, mes cher porcs de l’eau.
Sometime around the end of June, Kamloops City Council will get a yet to be written report on the 100 households that took part in the city’s Voluntary Water-Metering Project. That report may provide council with enough ammo to give the lock-and-load order on mandatory metering. Kamloops Utilities Director David Duckworth says the report will say that “at least 50 per cent of householders saved money while the other 50 per cent paid more”.
Kamloops need to conservative water is more about avoiding costly infrastructure improvements than a shortage of water at the moment. But more importantly, it lacks fairness. As one clever observer says, it’s like a motorcycle and semi-trailer gassing up at the service station and both paying the same amount. Huh?
Utilities Director David Duckworth admits that meters could cause some ‘brown spots’ in town. Any move to mandatory metering will require public education and creative thinking. Maybe it means rebates for xeriscaping or installing underground sprinkler systems, and new developments should come with water saving elements like come with small drought resistant lawns, plants and trees and built in sprinkler systems.
I read something the other day, when I was de-welling about the greatness of water. An American president, Dwight Eisenhower, on a visit to Canada in the 1950ies, looked around and said “you (us Canadians) should remember that really great water is one of your greatest assets. But when you’ve got a lot of it, you don’t think about it.”
He must have been talking about Kamloops. My, the hills are green.
Brenda Craig is a writer and broadcaster, turned speechwriter and media consultant. She now lives and works in magnificent Kamloops, British Columbia.
http://www.thespeechwriter-canada.com/
Brenda Craig
Published in Thompson Life Magazine
June 2007
bacraig53@hotmail.com
There’s been a lot of ‘spouting off’ about the idea of ‘pay as you spray’ mandatory residential water-metering. The nasty truth is, the flat-rate system is a contributing factor to our dubious honour as the number one water hogs of the Nation.
According the city’s Utility Director, David Duckworth we suck up “20 times the national per capita average”. On hot days, when other Canadians use 800 liters a day, we gulp down 2500 liters per capita.
There’s something quite serene about our semi-arid climate with the sage-tufted hills, even if our 270 millimeter annual rainfall (just under 11 inches) does put us in league with Alice Springs in Australia’s outback, the lower edge of the Sahara region of Africa and some areas of Nevada (think Mojave desert).
Considering we’re about 3 inches shy of official desert status, the city’s flat rate for residential water consumers has been thought of as a necessity. Providing low-cost water was a way to keep us from turning into a ‘brown town’, in other words, everyone could afford to keep the lawn green.
Unfortunately un-metered householders can be real drips, and can be frequently seen dusting off the driveway with a hose instead of broom or letting sprinklers miss their targets hour after hour after hour.
But it’s midnight at the oasis, mes cher porcs de l’eau.
Sometime around the end of June, Kamloops City Council will get a yet to be written report on the 100 households that took part in the city’s Voluntary Water-Metering Project. That report may provide council with enough ammo to give the lock-and-load order on mandatory metering. Kamloops Utilities Director David Duckworth says the report will say that “at least 50 per cent of householders saved money while the other 50 per cent paid more”.
Kamloops need to conservative water is more about avoiding costly infrastructure improvements than a shortage of water at the moment. But more importantly, it lacks fairness. As one clever observer says, it’s like a motorcycle and semi-trailer gassing up at the service station and both paying the same amount. Huh?
Utilities Director David Duckworth admits that meters could cause some ‘brown spots’ in town. Any move to mandatory metering will require public education and creative thinking. Maybe it means rebates for xeriscaping or installing underground sprinkler systems, and new developments should come with water saving elements like come with small drought resistant lawns, plants and trees and built in sprinkler systems.
I read something the other day, when I was de-welling about the greatness of water. An American president, Dwight Eisenhower, on a visit to Canada in the 1950ies, looked around and said “you (us Canadians) should remember that really great water is one of your greatest assets. But when you’ve got a lot of it, you don’t think about it.”
He must have been talking about Kamloops. My, the hills are green.
Brenda Craig is a writer and broadcaster, turned speechwriter and media consultant. She now lives and works in magnificent Kamloops, British Columbia.
http://www.thespeechwriter-canada.com/
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